UC-NRLF 


I 


GEORGE  W.  CHILDS. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 


BY 

.1  AMES    J'A  TV  TON. 


GEORGE  W.  CHILDS 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


BY 


JAMES  PARTON. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS,    PRINTER. 

1870. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


TWENTY-FIVE  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  resident  of  Philadel- 
phia, there  was  one  spot  of  that  sedate  and  tranquil  city  which 
seemed  like  home ;  for  it  exhibited  the  vitality  which  New  York- 
ers are  accustomed  to  witness  on  every  hand.  This  was  the 
corner  of  Third  and  Chestnut  Streets,  where  was  published  the 
PUBLIC  LEDGER,  and  where  there  was  also  the  most  flourishing 
depot  of  newspapers  and  cheap  publications  then  existing  in  the 
city.  It  was  always  exhilarating  to  pass  that'corner;  such  was 
the  bustle,  and  bright  display  of  the  fugitive  wares  of  literature. 
The  LEDGER  then  seemed  as  firmly  established  in  the  habits  and 
confidence  of  the  people  as  a  newspaper  could  be,  and  it  was 
still  owned  by  the  three  able  men  who  had  founded  it  many 
years  before.  The  Ledger  building  was  solid,  tall,  and  impos- 
ing, and  the  office  wore  that  air  of  immutable  prosperity  which 
old  banks  and  old  newspaper  establishments  alone  possess. 

It  had  begun  in  the  quiet  way  in  which  things  of  lasting  im- 
portance usually  do;  and  it  had  had  that  tough  struggle  for  life 
which  the  strong  never  escape.  On  half  a  sheet  of  paper  three 
journeymen  printers  from  New  York  had  drawn  up,  in  1836, 
their  articles  of  partnership,  had  hired  a  small  office,  bought  a 
hand-press,  engaged  an  editor,  and  launched  their  enterprise — 
a  penny  paper — a  novelty  then  in  Philadelphia.  They  would 
have  failed  if  they  had  been  cowards,  for  they  had  not  the  capi- 
tal to  wait  long  for  success.  Luckily  for  them,  questions  arose 
which  gave  them  the  chance  of  risking  destruction  by  doing 

M152383 


4 

right.  They  did  right ;  they  took  the  side  of  law  against  in- 
fluential mobs.  When  the  medical  students — a  numerous  bro- 
therhood in  Philadelphia — were  disorderly,  the  little  LEDGER 
defied  and  rebuked  them.  During  the  fearful  excitement 
attendant  on  the  Native  American  riots  of  1844,  the  LEDGER 
courted  odium  by  denouncing  lawless  violence,  and  nearly 
incurred  ruin.  When  the  abolitionists  were  mobbed,  the 
LEDGER,  though  its  corps  of  proprietors  and  editors  disap- 
proved their  proceedings,  defended  their  right  to  assemble  and 
discuss  public  questions. 

Such  conduct  as  this  makes  a  newspaper  strike  down  its  roots 
deep  in  the  gratitude  and  esteem  of  the  stable  and  the  sub- 
scribing portion  of  the  public.  A  newspaper  gains  by  daring 
to  lose.  It  never  does  so  well  for  itself  as  when  it  gives  wide- 
spread offence  by  being  right  a  month  before  its  readers. 

In  1848,  when  the  LEDGER  had  been  in  existence  twelve 
years,  it  had  grown  past  the  perils  of  its  youth,  and  yielded  to 
its  proprietors  incomes  ample  and  secure.  They  were  still  in 
the  prime  of  life,  and  with  powers  strengthened  by  use  and  suc- 
cess ;  nor  were  there  wanting  in  the  establishment  men  of  mature 
and  tried  ability,  who  might  be  supposed  capable  of  taking 
their  places  when  age  should  have  disposed  them  to  withdraw. 
At  that  very  time  the  future  master  of  the  LEDGER  worked  in 
a  portion  of  the  Ledger  building.  He  was  not  its  chief  editor. 
He  was  not  foreman,  book-keeper,  or  confidential  factotum.  He 
was  not  in  the  line  of  promotion  at  all.  If  any  one  had  been 
asked  to  go  over  the  edifice  and  name  the  person  employed  in  it 
who  was  most  likely  to  succeed  to  the  proprietorship,  he  would 
not  have  so  much  as  taken  into  consideration  the  chances  of 
a  youth,  named  CHILDS,  who  occupied  a  small  oflBce  in  the 
building.  I  should  have  passed  him  by  as  a  person  totally 
out  of  the  question.  And  yet  he,  the  almost  unknown  lad  of 
eighteen,  without  capitalled  friends  or  connections,  with  nothing 
to  aid  him  but  his  own  brain,  hands,  and  habits — he,  GEORGE 


"W.  CHILDS,  was  the  predestined  person !  The  editor,  who  was 
a  forcible  and  fluent  writer,  attempted  mastership  and  failed. 
Other  leading  men  in  the  building  tried  for  the  same  prize,  but 
with  no  memorable  success.  That  boy  was  the  man !  He  was 
the  born  master.  He  was  the  heir,  though  not  the  heir  appa- 
rent. And,  what  was  still  more  remarkable,  he  had  already 
distinctly  set  before  himself,  as  an  object  to  be  accomplished, 
the  proprietorship  of  the  LEDGER  establishment.  He  had  said 
to  himself:  "I will  own  all  this  some  day!" 

It  was  not  the  random  utterance  of  a  light-hearted  boy.  He 
meant  it.  It  was  his  deliberate  purpose  ;  and  he  had  grounds, 
even  in  his  boyish  successes,  for  believing  in  its  fulfilment.  In 
the  years  that  followed,  he  made  no  secret  of  his  intention ;  but 
often  said  to  his  intimate  friends,  "  If  I  live,  I  will  become  the 
owner  of  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER."  He  said  so  to  Dr.  R.  Shelton 
Mackenzie,  nine  years  before  he  accomplished  his  purpose,  and 
at  a  time  when  there  seemed  no  likelihood  of  its  ever  being  for 
sale,  or  of  his  possessing  the  means  of  buying  it.  The  audacity 
of  such  a  thought  in  a  boy  of  eighteen  can  hardly  be  appreciated 
by  any  one  who  was  not  familiar  with  Philadelphia  at  the  time, 
and  with  the  solid  basis  of  prosperity  upon  which  the  LEDGER 
stood.  It  was  as  though  a  poor  boy  who  had  struggled  to 
London  from  a  distant  town,  and  obtained  some  obscure  em- 
ployment about  Printing  House  Square,  should  quietly  say  to 
himself :  "  I  will  one  day  own  the  '  London  Times  !' " 

The  lad  was  a  stranger  in  Philadelphia,  recently  arrived  from 
Baltimore,  his  native  city.  His  early  friends  in  Baltimore  do 
not  depict  him  as  in  the  least  resembling  the  ideal  boy  of  modern 
novels — the  Tom  Browns,  who  put  forth  their  whole  soul  in 
foot-ball  and  cricket,  and  bestow  the  reluctant  residue  upon 
the  serious  business  of  school.  With  sincere  deference  to  our 
honored  guest,  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes,  I  must  beg  leave  to  state, 
that  superior  men,  who  learn  to  govern  themselves  and  direct 
affairs,  do  not  spend  their  boyhood  so.  Not  in  the  Rugby  style  do 


6 

the  Jeffersons,  Franklins,  Pitts,  Peels,  Watts,  nor  the  great  men 
of  business,  nor  the  immortals  of  literature  and  art,  pass  the 
priceless  hours  of  boyhood  and  youth.  Such  boys  do  not  despise 
the  oar  and  the  bat,  but  they  do  not  exalt  the  sports  of  the 
play- ground  to  the  chief  place  in  their  regard.  This  boy 
certainly  did  not.  He  exhibited,  even  as  a  child,  two  traits 
seldom  found  in  the  same  individual :  a  remarkable  aptitude  for 
business,  and  a  remarkable  liberality  in  giving  away  the  results 
of  his  boyish  trading.  At  school  he  was  often  bartering  boyish 
treasures — knives  for  pigeons,  marbles  for  pop-guns,  a  bird-cage 
for  a  book ;  and  he  displayed  an  intuitive  knack  in  getting  a 
good  bargain  by  buying  and  selling  at  the  right  moment.  At 
a  very  early  age  he  had  a  sense  of  the  value  of  time,  and  a 
strong  inclination  to  become  a  self-supporting  individual.  He 
has  told  his  friends  that,  in  his  tenth  year,  when  school  was 
dismissed  for  the  summer,  he  took  the  place  of  errand-boy  in  a 
bookstore,  and  spent  the  vacation  in  hard  work.  This  was  not 
romantic,  but  it  was  highly  honorable  to  a  little  fellow  to  be 
willing  thus  to  work  for  the  treasures  that  boys  desire.  At 
thirteen  he  entered  the  U.  S.  Navy,  and  spent  fifteen  months  in 
the  service;  an  experience  and  discipline  not  without  good 
results  upon  his  health  and  character. 

He  was  a  favorite  among  his  boyish  friends.  One  of  them, 
Hon.  J.  J.  Stewart,  of  Maryland,  has  recently  said :  "  He  was 
then  what  you  find  him  now.  His  heart  was  always  larger 
than  his  means.  There  is  but  one  thing  he  always  despised,  and 
that  is  meanness ;  there  is  but  one  character  he  hates,  and  that 
is  a  liar.  When  he  left  Baltimore,  a  little  boy,  the  affectionate 
regrets  of  all  his  companions  followed  him  to  Philadelphia;  and 
the  attachment  they  felt  for  him  was  more  like  romance  than 
reality  in  this  every-day  world.  *  *  *  I  remember  that  he 
wrote  to  me  years  ago,  when  we  were  both  boys,  that  he  meant 
to  prove  that  a  man  could  be  liberal  and  successful  at  the 
same  time." 


Let  us  see  if  the  career  of  the  man  has  fulfilled  the  dream  of 
the  boy. 

Upon  reaching  Philadelphia,  a  vigorous  lad  of  fourteen,  he 
knew  but  one  family  in  the  city,  and  they,  soon  removing,  left 
him  friendless  there.  He  found  employment  in  his  old  vocation 
of  shop-boy  in  a  bookstore.  But  he  was  no  longer  a  boy.  Expe- 
rience had  given  him  an  early  maturity  of  mind  and  character, 
and  he  was  soon  discharging  the  duties  of  a  man.  Paying  strict 
attention  to  business,  working  early  and  late  for  his  employer, 
disdaining  no  honest  service,  he  soon  had  an  opportunity,  young 
as  he  was,  of  showing  that  he  possessed  the  rarest  faculty  of  a 
business  man — judgment.  After  shutting  up  the  store  in  the 
evening,  he  was  intrusted  by  his  employer  with  the  duty  of  fre- 
quenting the  book  auctions  and  making  purchases ;  and  by  the 
time  he  was  sixteen,  it  was  he  who  was  regularly  deputed  to 
attend  the  book  trade-sales  at  New  York  and  Boston.  After 
serving  in  this  capacity  for  four  years,  being  then  eighteen  years 
of  age,  having  saved  a  few  hundred  dollars  capital,  and  accumu- 
lated a  much  larger  capital  in  character,  in  knowledge  of  busi- 
ness, and  in  the  confidence  of  business  men,  he  hired  a  small 
slice  of  the  Ledger  building,  and  set  up  in  business  for  himself. 
Already  he  felt  that  his  mission  was  to  conduct  a  great  daily 
paper;  already,  as  before  remarked,  he  had  said  to  himself, 
that  paper  shall  be  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER. 

In  his  narrow  slip  of  a  store  in  the  Ledger  building,  he  be- 
stirred himself  mightily,  and  throve  apace.  Faculty  is  always 
in  demand;  and  I  say  again,  a  young  man  generally  gets  a  step 
forward  in  his  career  about  as  soon  as  he  is  able  to  hold  it. 
Before  he  was  quite  twenty-one,  we  find  him  a  member  of  that 
publishing  firm  which  afterwards  obtained  so  much  celebrity  and 
success  under  the  title  of  Childs  &  Peterson.  The  intelligent 
head  of  the  old  firm  of  R.  E.  Peterson  &  Co.  had  the  discern- 
ment to  see  his  capacity,  and  sought  an  alliance  with  him.  It 
was  a  strong  firm ;  for  the  talent  it  contained  was  at  once  great 

t 


8 

and  various.  Mr.  Peterson  and  his  family  had  considerable 
knowledge  of  science  and  literature,  and  Mr.  CHILDS  possessed 
that  sure  intuitive  judgment  of  the  public  taste  and  the  public 
needs  without  which  no  man  can  succeed  as  a  publisher.  He 
had,  also,  that  strong  confidence  in  his  own  judgment  which 
gave  him  courage  to  risk  vast  amounts  of  capital,  and  even  the 
solvency  of  the  firm,  upon  enterprises  at  which  many  a  more 
experienced  publisher  would  have  shaken  his  head. 

There  is  no  business  so  difficult  as  that  of  publishing  books. 
Few  succeed  in  it,  and  still  fewer  attain  a  success  at  all  com- 
mensurate with  the  energy  and  risk  which  it  demands.  The 
very  knowledge  and  taste  which  a  publisher  may  possess  are 
more  likely  to  mislead  than  to  guide  him  aright ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, we  find  that  some  of  the  greatest  publishing  houses  in 
every  country  are  conducted  by  grossly  ignorant  men,  who 
never  read  the  books  they  publish,  and  who  consider  nothing 
but  the  reputation  of  authors,  or  follow  implicitly  the  judgment 
of  experienced  readers.  Such  persons  are  never  led  astray  by 
tastes  of  their  own.  They  never  think  the  public  will  like  a 
book  because  they  happen  to  like  it,  or  suppose  the  public 
interested  in  a  subject  because  it  is  interesting  to  them.  There 
are  publishers,  however,  whose  tastes  and  preferences  are  in 
such  harmony  with  those  of  the  public  that  their  own  personal 
approval  of  a  book  is  a  sufficient  guide.  In  the  firm  of  Childs 
&  Peterson  there  was  much  of  both  kinds  of  judgment — that 
which  comes  of  general  knowledge,  and  that  which  results  from 
a  knowledge  of  the  world.  Consequently,  nearly  all  of  it's 
ventures  were  successful.  They  published  few  -books,  but  they 
frequently  contrived  to  make  a  great  hit  once  a  year.  Mr. 
Peterson  compiled  a  work  from  various  sources  called  "Familiar 
Science,"  which  Mr.  CHILDS'S  energy  and  tact  pushed  to  a  sale 
of  two  hundred  thousand  copies,  and  secured  for  it  a  footing  in 
many  schools,  which  it  retains  to  this  day.  We  all  remember 
with  what  skill  and  persistence  Mr.  GUILDS  trumpeted  the  bril- 


9 

liant  works  of  Dr.  Kane  upon  "  Arctic  Explorations,"  and  how 
he  made  us  all  buy  the  volumes  as  they  appeared  at  five  dollars, 
and  how  glad  we  were  we  had  bought  them  when  we  came  to 
read  them.  Nor  was  Dr.  Kane  ill  pleased  to  receive  a  copyright 
of  about  seventy  thousand  dollars.  Parson  Brownlow's  book 
was  one  of  Mr.  CHILDS'S  successes.  It  was  not  his  fault  that 
the  book  turned  out  to  be  absolute  trash.  He  could  not  foresee 
that.  Before  a  copy  of  the  work  existed,  he  had  so  provoked 
public  curiosity,  that  it  sold  to  the  extent  of  fifty  thousand 
copies.  He  had  the  pleasure  of  handing  over  to  the  patriotic 
author  the  handsome  copyright  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

Mr.  CHILDS,  either  by  himself,  or  in  connection  with  part- 
ners, was  a  publisher  of  books  for  a  dozen  years  or  more  ;  dur- 
ing which  he  gave  the  public  several  works  of  high  utility,  in- 
volving an  outlay  such  as  few  young  publishers  have  ever  been 
in  a  condition  to  undertake.  No  publisher's  list  has  ever  con- 
tained less  of  the  sensational — Mr.  Brownlow's  book  being  his 
only  venture  of  that  kind,  and  that  was  an  accident  of  an  ex- 
ceptional period.  Among  the  massively  useful  books  bearing 
his  imprint,  there  is  that  truly  extraordinary  enterprise,  "Dr. 
Allibone's  Dictionary  of  English  and  American  Authors," 
which  is  dedicated  to  Mr.  CHILDS.  It  is  questionable  if  there 
has  ever  been  produced  by  one  man  a  book  involving  a  greater 
amount  of  labor,  or  one  containing  a  smaller  proportion  of 
errors,  than  this  colossal  dictionary.  Often  as  I  have  had  oc- 
casion to  use  it,  I  have  never  done  so  without  a  new  sense  of 
its  wonderful  character.  Probably  when  Mr.  CHILDS  undertook 
its"  publication,  there  was  hardly  another  publishing  house  in 
the  world  that  would  have  given  the  laborious  author  any  en- 
couragement ;  and  it  is  safe  to  add  that  but  for  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  he  would  have  pushed  it  to  a  compensating  sale.  Other 
costly  works  published  by  Mr.  CHILDS  are  "  Bouvier's  Law 
Dictionary,"  "Bouvier's  Institutes  of  American  Law,"  "Shars- 


10 

wood's  Blackstone,"  "  Fletcher's  Brazil,"  and  "  Lossing's  Illus- 
trated History  of  the  Civil  War." 

But  it  is  not  a  detail  of  his  particular  enterprises  that  is  re- 
quired in  a  brief  sketch  like  this.  It  is  important  to  know  in 
what  spirit  and  manner  he  has  conducted  these  extensive 
affairs,  and  what  are  the  real  causes  of  his  success  in  them. 

His  career  has  not  been  all  triumph ;  nor  can  he,  any  more 
than  other  men,  justly  claim  that  his  success  is  due  to  his  unas- 
sisted powers.  The  strongest  man  needs  the  aid  of  his  fellows, 
and  he  is  the  strongest  man  who  knows  best  how  to  win  and 
deserve  that  assistance.  Such  a  man  as  Mr.  CHILDS  makes 
friends.  It  belongs  to  his  hearty,  hopeful,  and  generous  nature 
to  inspire  regard  in  kindred  minds ;  and  even  minds  that  have 
little  in  common  with  his  own  love  to  bask  in  the  sunshine  of 
his  influence.  It  so  chanced  that,  among  the  friends  who  were 
drawn  to  him,  early  in  his  Philadelphia  career,  was  the  cele- 
brated banker,  Mr.  ANTHONY  J.  DREXEL,  a  gentleman  whose 
name  in  the  metropolis  of  Pennsylvania  is  suggestive  of  every- 
thing honorable,  liberal,  and  public-spirited.  Mr.  CHILDS  is 
proud  to  acknowledge  that,  at  many  a  crisis  in  his  life,  Mr. 
DREXEL'S  sympathy  and  ever-ready  help  have  been  a  tower  of 
strength  to  him.  They  have  usually  been  side  by  side  at  the 
turning  points  in  Mr.  CHILDS'S  career;  the  capitalist  being  always 
prompt  to  lend  the  support  of  his  credit  and  wealth  to  the 
execution  of  Mr.  CHILDS'S  well-considered  schemes. 

In  the  long  run,  however,  a  man  stands  upon  his  own  indi- 
vidual merits.  No  external  aid  can  long  avail  if  there  are 
radical  deficiencies  in  his  own  character.  It  is  his  own  indo- 
mitable heart  and  will  that  carry  every  man  forward  to  final 
victory.  "  There  have  been  times  in  my  business  career,"  Mr. 
CHILDS  once  said,  "  when  everything  looked  discouraging,  and 
many  would  have  given  up  in  despair ;  but  I  always  worked  the 
harder,  and  never  lost  hope." 

He  was  sure  to  remember  a  kindness,  and  was  never  back- 


11 

ward  in  reciprocating  it.  It  has  been  a  principle  with  him  in 
business  not  to  be  blind  to  all  interests  but  his  own,  and  he  has 
endeavored  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  maxim  :  "  Live  and 
let  live."  "  I  have  never  been  aggressive,"  he  sometimes  says, 
"  but  I  am  very  determined  in  self-defence."  While  he  has  re- 
frained from  all  operations  foreign  to  his  own  business,  he  has 
given  his  whole  mind  to  that ;  shrinking  from  no  labor  which 
its  exigencies  required,  and  never  considering  that  anything 
was  done  while  anything  remained  to  do.  He  thinks  that  many 
who  started  with  him  in  the  race  have  failed  to  reach  any  valu- 
able success,  merely  from  not  giving  their  whole  attention  to 
their  business,  unwilling  to  defer  the  enjoyment  of  life  until 
they  had  earned  the  right  to  enjoy.  "  Meanness,"  says  Mr. 
CHILDS,  "  is  not  necessary  to  success  in  business,  but  economy 
is"  He  has  been  an  economist,  not  only  of  money,  but  of  his 
health,  his  strength,  his  vital  force,  the  energy  and  purity  of 
his  brain.  It  has  been  his  happiness  to  escape  those  habits 
which  lower  the  tone  of  the  bodily  health  and  impair  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  mind — such  as  smoking  and  drinking — which,  at 
this  moment,  lessen  the  useful  energies  of  civilized  man  by, 
perhaps,  one-half!  He  tells  the  young  men  about  him  that 
Franklin's  rule  for  success  in  business  is  about  the  best  that  can 
be  given — simple  as  it  is.  It  consists  of  three  words  :  "  Tem- 
perance, industry,  and  frugality." 

During  his  career  as  a  publisher  of  books  he  never  lost  sight 
of  his  favorite  object,  the  control  of  a  leading  daily  newspaper. 
The  time  came  when  he  could  gratify  this  ambition. 

The  PUBLIC  LEDGER  had  fallen  upon  evil  days.  Started  as 
a  penny  paper  in  1836,  the  proprietors  had  been  able  to  keep  it 
at  that  price  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  But  the  war,  by  dou- 
bling the  cost  of  material  and  labor,  had  rendered  it  impossible 
to  continue  the  paper  at  the  original  price,  except  at  a  loss. 
The  proprietors  were  men  naturally  averse  to  change.  They 
clung  to  the  penny  feature  of  their  system  too  long,  believing  it 


12 

vital  to  the  prosperity  of  the  LEDGER.  They  were  both  right 
and  wrong.  Cheapness  was  vital :  but  in  1864  a  cent  for  such 
a  sheet  as  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  was  not  a  price  at  all ;  it  was 
giving  it  half  away.  Retaining  the  original  price  was  carrying 
a  good  principle  to  that  extreme  which  endangered  the  prin- 
ciple itself;  just  as  we  are  now  putting  in  peril  the  principle  of 
cheap  government  by  condemning  important  servants  of  the 
people — judges,  mayors,  governors,  presidents,  cabinet  minis- 
ters, and  heads  of  bureaus — to  pinching  and  precarious  penury. 
Nor  were  the  proprietors  then  in  a  condition  to  superintend  a 
radical  change.  One  of  them  was  dead.  Another  was  absorbed 
in  the  management  of  another  enterprise  ;  and  the  third  was  in- 
different. This  firm,  once  so  capable  and  vigorous,  had  outlived 
its  opportunity,  and  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  was  for  sale. 

The  establishment  was  then  losing  four  hundred  and  eighty 
dollars  upon  every  number  of  the  paper  which  it  issued.  This 
was  not  generally  known ;  the  paper  looked  as  prosperous  as 
ever ;  its  circulation  was  immense,  and  its  columns  were  crowded 
with  advertisements.  And  yet  there  was  a  weekly  loss  of  three 
thousand  dollars — a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
Upon  learning  this  fact,  the  friends  of  Mr.  GHILDS,  whose  opinion 
he  sought,  said  with  decision :  "  Don't  buy !"  Nevertheless,  he 
looked  the  ground  carefully  over ;  he  made  minute  calculations  ; 
he  kept  on  his  thinking  cap  day  and  evening.  He  bought  the 
PUBLIC  LEDGER — the  whole  of  it,  just  as  it  stood — for  a  sum 
a  little  exceeding  the  amount  of  its  annual  loss. 

The  purchase  was  completed  Dec.  5th,  1864.  A  week  after, 
the  new  proprietor  announced  the  two  simple  and  obviously  just 
changes  that  were  necessary  to  the  prolonged  existence  of  the 
paper.  He  doubled  its  price  and  increased  the  advertising 
rates  to  the  compensating  point.  The  first  shock  to  the  estab- 
lishment was  severe :  subscribers  fell  off,  and  the  columns  were 
lightened  in  some  degree  of  their  burthen  of  advertisements. 
But  a  daily  newspaper  of  any  great  importance  is  to  large  classes 


13 

of  people  a  necessity  ;  and  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  was  eminently 
such,  for  it  had  been  for  twenty  years  the  established  medium 
of  communication  between  employers  and  employed,  between 
buyers  and  sellers,  between  bereaved  families  and  their  friends, 
and  between  landlords  and  tenants.  The  subscribers,  too, 
comprehended  the  reasonableness  of  the  change,  and  Mr.  CHILDS 
was  not  the  man  to  neglect  the  means  of  bringing  it  home  to 
their  minds.  He  knows  the  power  of  advertising,  and  how  to 
use  that  power.  In  a  few  days  the  tide  turned.  At  the  end  of 
a  month  he  made  a  concession  of  which  no  one  who  does  not 
know  Philadelphia  intimately  can  understand  the  importance  : 
he  reduced  the  price  of  the  paper  from  two  cents  a  day  to  ten 
cents  a  week.  What  a  trifling  matter  this  seems  to  us  lavish 
New  Yorkers !  But  Philadelphia — leaving  out  a  few  hundred 
very  rich  people,  who  are  the  same  everywhere — is  composed 
of  a  prodigious  number  of  highly  respectable  families,  whose 
means  are  limited,  and  to  whom  severe  economy  is  a  thing  of 
conscience,  necessity,  and  life-long  habit.  Not  because  they 
earn  less  than  the  inhabitants  of  other  cities,  but  because  they 
are  ambitious  for  their  children,  and  because  it  is  the  custom  of 
the  place  for  all  but  the  very  poorest  people  to  live  with  a  cer- 
tain decent  and  orderly  respectability,  incompatible  with  waste. 
Poverty  is  not  regarded  there  as  an  excuse  for  squalor  and 
dirt.  Hence,  the  change  in  the  cost  of  the  LEDGER — the  sole 
luxury  to  many  virtuous  families — was  really  an  important 
stroke  of  policy,  which  restored  the  paper  to  more  than  its 
former  ascendency. 

Behold,  then,  Mr.  CHILDS,  at  length,  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
position  upon  which  he  had  fixed  his  hopes  sixteen  years  before  ! 
He  assumed,  at  once,  personal  control  of  the  paper,  both  as  a 
business  and  as  a  vehicle  of  communication  with  the  public 
mind.  For  four  years  he  rarely  left  the  editorial  rooms  before 
midnight.  Himself  a  man  of  the  people,  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  people,  he  has  conducted  the  paper  in  the  interests  of  the 


14 

people  ;  and  yet  there  is  no  paper  in  the  world,  the  tone  of 
which  is  more  uniformly  unsensational  than  that  of  the  PUBLIC 
LEDGER  of  Philadelphia.  There  is  a  certain  sincerity  in  the 
editorials  which  contrasts  most  pleasingly  with  the  mockery, 
the  chaff,  the  hypocrisy,  and  the  cowardly  indirectness  which 
are  such  hideous  characteristics  of  some  of  the  newspapers  of 
New  York.  Mr.  CHILDS  evidently  feels  that  a  lie  is  a  lie,  that 
an  insult  is  an  insult,  and  that  a  calumny  is  a  calumny,  whether 
it  be  spoken  or  printed;  and  he  does  not  consider  that  it  is  less 
atrocious  to  inflict  a  stab  at  midnight,  from  the  safe  seclusion 
of  an  editorial  room,  than  to  take  an  assassin  into  pay  for  a 
similar  purpose.  It  is  an  honest,  clean,  industriously  edited 
paper — an  honor  to  journalism,  to  Philadelphia,  and  to  its 
proprietor.  Nothing  is  admitted  to  its  columns,  not  even  an 
advertisement,  which  ought  not  to  be  read  in  a  well-ordered 
household.  The  adoption  of  this  rule  by  Mr.  CHILDS  excluded 
from  the  paper  a  class  of  advertisements  which  yielded  a  reve- 
nue of  three  hundred  dollars  a  week. 

The  people  of  Philadelphia  have  responded  to  his  efforts  with 
a  liberality  which  has  enabled  him  to  serve  them  better  and 
better.  A  new  LEDGER  BUILDING,  ample  in  proportions,  and 
furnished  with  elegant  completeness,  now  adorns  the  city,  and 
invites  the  approval  of  visitors.  The  public  seems  sometimes 
to  bestow  its  favors  capriciously — as  if  indifferent  to  the  worth 
or  worthlessness  of  those  competing  for  its  suffrages.  In  this 
instance,  the  people  of  Philadelphia  have  rallied  warmly  to  the 
support  of  a  man  whose  ambition  and  constant  endeavor  have 
been  to  render  them  solid  and  lasting  service.  No  one  can 
patiently  examine  a  few  numbers  of  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  with- 
out perceiving  that,  in  every  department  of  the  paper,  there  is 
an  honest  effort  to  give  the  reader  the  most  and  the  best  that 
can  be  put  into  the  space  assigned.  It  is  gratifying  to  know 
that  a  newspaper  conducted  in  this  spirit  is  one  of  the  most 
profitable  in  the  country. 


15 

Mr.  CHILDS,  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  princely  income,  hon- 
ors himself  by  his  constant  consideration  of  the  comfort,  plea- 
sure, welfare,  and  dignity  of  the  persons  who  assist  him.  He 
has  provided  for  them  apartments  to  work  in  as  handsome  and 
commodious  as  the  nature  of  their  employment  admits,  and  the 
building  abounds  in  such  conveniences  as  bath-rooms  and  ice 
fountains.  He  takes  pleasure  in  compensating  faithful  service 
liberally,  and  loves  to  see  happiness  and  prosperity  around  him. 
He  has  presented  his  assistants  recently  with  insurances  upon 
their  lives,  and  has  given  to  the  Typographical  Society  an  ele- 
gant improved  lot  in  Woodlands  Cemetery,  besides  contributing 
liberally  to  the  Society's  endowment.  Care  was  taken,  in  fur- 
nishing the  compositors'  room,  to  give  the  walls  and  ceiling  the 
subdued  tone  most  agreeable  to  the  overtasked  eyes  of  the  com- 
positors. On  days  of  festivity,  such  as  the  Fourth  of  July  and 
Christmas,  Mr.  CHILDS  is  accustomed  to  provide  for  those  in  his 
employment  and  their  families  an  entertainment  of  some  kind, 
in  which  all  can  participate — the  happy  effects  of  which  shine 
in  their  countenances  and  animate  their  minds  for  many  a  day 
after.  In  a  word,  his  is  a  generous  heart,  that  finds  happiness 
in  diffusing  happiness,  and  loves  to  make  all  around  and  about 
him  sharers  in  his  prosperity. 

How  much  nobler  is  this  than  to  scrimp  and  screw  for  fifty 
years,  blasting  all  the  life  within  range  by  a  cold,  begrudging 
spirit,  and  then  leave  behind,  as  a  heavy  burthen  upon  pos- 
terity, a  huge  mass  of  property,  which  the  owner  parts  with 
only  because  he  cannot  carry  it  with  him !  Posterity  will  have 
care  and  perplexity  enough  without  being  saddled  with  crude, 
injudicious  bequests.  But  nearly  the  whole  efficient  population 
of  the  globe  sustains  the  relation  of  employer  and  employed  ; 
and,  as  far  as  we  can  discern,  this  is  an  unchangeable  necessity 
of  human  life.  Hence  we  may  say,  that  the  welfare  and  dignity 
of  man  depend  upon  the  degree  to  which  the  duties  involved 
in  this  relation  are  understood  and  performed.  A  man  in  the 


16 

position  of  Mr.  CHILDS  can,  if  he  will,  render  the  lives  of  many 
of  those  who  serve  him  bitter  and  shameful ;  he  can  discourage 
them  by  a  hard,  pitiless  demeanor ;  he  can  corrupt  them  by  a 
bad  example ;  he  can  wound  them  by  unjust  reproaches ;  he 
can  weaken  them  by  excessive  indulgence ;  he  can  keep  them 
anxious  by  his  caprice  ;  he  can  foster  ill-will,  and  relax  honest 
effort  by  favoritism ;  or,  he  can  simply  hold  aloof,  and  regard 
his  assistants  merely  as  part  of  the  apparatus  of  his  business. 
Mr.  CHILDS,  on  the  contrary,  chooses  to  be  the  friend  and  bene- 
factor of  those  who  labor  with  him ;  and,  as  he  has  himself 
labored  faithfully  in  every  post,  from  errand  boy  to  chief,  he 
knows  where  and  how  to  apply  the  balm  that  solaces  the  hearts 
of  the  toiling  sons  of  men.  It  is  for  this  that  I  honor  him. 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


